(warning: pseudo-naughty bits ahead)
Rad Omen — “Rad Anthem” (Nicholas Goossen): Get together 5 fast-food restaurant mascots for a party on Friday night — in this case, Ronald McDonald, The Colonel, Jack from Jack in the Box, and the Burger King himself — all doing shots, doing lines, partaking in general debauchery, etc., and it”s hard not to get hooked. Arguably the lowest on the mascot totem pole, the miserable King doesn’t look like any amount of coke will help him.
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A group of popular UK musicians including, Bernard Sumner, Hot Chip and Hot City have teamed up with Converse to create an exclusive track. The collaboration was inspired by Converse’s year round celebration of the diversity of Uk’s music and creativity –honoring artists and their work.
The track, ‘Didn’t Know What Love Was,’ sounds like a revival of Deee-Lite from the 90s layered with rock and electronic undertones. And of course, the song wouldn’t be complete without a cool video to showcase their idea and provide some visual interpretation.
One of the great things about music, and why I love it so much, is that it affects people in ways that no other medium really can. It has this incredibly ability to touch every emotion inside a person – love, laughter, madness, heartbreak, joy… what have you – sometimes hitting each and every one of those over the course of a single song. It’s said that the sense of smell is the most powerful sense in a person, the one that conjures up emotion and memory most vividly; however I disagree. I think it’s hearing. I can listen to a song and be taken right back to a memory of / with it like it happened only yesterday, even if that memory is almost as old as I am.
With the above in mind, I’m brought to the first bit of news this week: after the passing of his close friend, Sally Menke (Quentin Tarantino’s longtime editor), RZA along with James Black, Kobra Khan and Justin Nokuza have released “Gone” in her honor.
Today’s bloggin best…
- Coachella is sold out my friends. LA Times
- RZA makes beats on his iPhone, son. Hypetrak
- Hot Chip covers Shakira’s “She Wolf.” Don’t call it Twee Wolf. Stereogum
- DJ Premier mixes tribute to Malcom McLaren. LA Record
- Unreleased Proof (RIP) produced by J Dilla (RIP). 2DopeBoyz
- Two new LCD Soundsystem track leaked. We All Want Someone
Coachella might be known as one of the world’s finest rock festivals, but since it’s inception all the way back in 1999, the event’s promoters put as much focus on LA rave culture as they did catering to the alternative nation (now called the indie rock masses). From Daft Punk to Kraftwerk, many of Coachella’s greatest moments over the years have come from electronic music titans. Here’s a collection of sets from artists playing this year’s festival. The perfect collection of beats to get you warmed up for the desert.
Today’s bloggin best…
- Alex Chilton tribute to take place at SXSW tomorrow. NME
- Hot Chip, Justice and Trent Reznor remix U2 on vinyl. Artificial Horizon
- Buy Perry Farrell’s Venice Beach House for $1.6 Million. Huffington Post
- The Black Keys played a new Danger Mouse produced song on the BBC. URB
- Spike Jonez debuted a new short film online (if you can get the Flash site to work). I’m Here
While they’re dubbed as an ‘indie electronica’ outfit, Hot Chip is (also like so many others) a conglomeration of several different beats and styles and techniques. Perhaps what’s most unique about them is their focus — mainly — is the variety of percussive tones here, many of which at first sound like something on a xylophone or a Casio keyboard. But forget the strictly drum-obsessed patterns and rhythms which so many electronica musicians focus on these days. Hot Chip eschews the hard-hitting electro beats or folkiness that so many indie artists focus on in exchange for something even more toned-down, perhaps even danceable, and also kind of just nutty (they’ve been known to conclude a concert now and then with a cover of Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”). Eclectic and exciting, it provides for a much more interesting, though subtle musical palette that is better heard for oneself that explained in a barrage of bad adjectives…see for yourself on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.
